'This stings' – Negreanu one-outed, $500K PGT side bet ends in thrilling photo finish

The 2025 PGT PLO Series has concluded — along with a $500,000 side bet between 10 players, including Daniel Negreanu, Alex Foxen, and Jesse Lonis.

Negreanu talked about the side bet in his Mania podcast earlier in the week. $50K from each of the 10 players created a winner-takes-all pot of $500K if any of them won the series leaderboard. 

After winning Event #3, Negreanu remained in contention late on Day 1 of the $25,000 PLO Championship finale. But his run ended when he was outgunned by quads, which came in as a one-outer on the river.

Negreanu had a boat with on the board and bet 235,000. Kamel Mokhammad put him all-in. Negreanu suspected quads but couldn't find the fold and saw his side-bet dreams go up in smoke.

Negreanu posted to say, "This one stings, damn," adding, "One out with one to come for heaps." 

Daniel Negreanu needed at least a second-place finish to have a shot at winning the PLO Series leaderboard.

Antonio Abrego

Collopy wins PLO Championship, Lonis scores big

Day 2 saw 13 players return with Mokhammad at the top, Lonis in second, and Jim Collopy all the way back in 10th. This was Collopy's day, though. By the time the final table started, he had run his stack up to second. 

Meanwhile, only nine got paid, and Cary Katz, Stephen Chidwick, and Dylan Linde busted early, before Tyler Brown and Firas Kashat were eliminated at the same time on the bubble, meaning they shared the first $45,000 payout. 

Collopy took out Artem Maksimov in eighth and then vaulted to the top of the leaderboard when he doubled through Christopher Frank with quad jacks. 

All eyes were on Lonis, though, with the $500K side bet still up for grabs. He doubled up twice as eliminations started but had to settle for third place, with Collopy and Dylan Weisman going head-to-head for the $450,367 first prize.

The first hand of heads-up turned out to be the last. Weisman woke up with aces, Collopy found kings, and the flop came . Weisman needed one of the two remaining aces, but the runout didn’t help.

Jim Collopy secured his second PGT title when his kings found a third to crack Wesiman's aces.

Foxen goes to the wire

That wasn't the end of the sweat, though, for Lonis. His third place meant Alex Foxen was still alive in the final one-day $5K PLO Bounty event. Only a win would be enough for him to take the leaderboard and side bet win from Lonis, and, incredibly, he made it to heads-up against Zachary Schwartz.

First place meant $63,510 for Schwartz — but a massive $563,510 for Foxen, thanks to the side bet (along with the PGT Gold Cup and a $10,000 PGT Passport for the leaderboard win).

Schwartz had almost 75% of the chips in play heads-up, and Foxen couldn't mount a comeback, running his two pair into a set. Lonis could finally breathe a sigh of relief. 

Jesse Lonis won the $500,000 side bet but had to wait until the end of the final one-day event.

Antonio Abrego

$25K PLO Championship results

PLO Series 2025 final leaderboard

^{Images courtesy of PokerGO.}